What "good" looks like for a private B2B SaaS company at each ARR stage — growth, churn, retention, efficiency and the Rule of 40. Every figure here is a reconciled median, not a top-decile target, so it tells you where the typical company sits rather than where the very best one does. Find your stage, read across, and see how your numbers compare.
Median values across four ARR stages. Honey marks the strongest stage for each metric; coral marks the best of the churn, payback and burn cues you want to fall. Each metric links to its definition and a free calculator.
| Metric | Under $1M | $1-5M | $5-20M | $20M+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| YoY ARR growth rate (median %) Growth decelerates sharply with scale; sub-$1M medians sit near 75 percent with top-quartile seeds above 200 percent, while $20M-plus settles in the high teens. | 75% | 40% | 30% | 18% |
| Gross revenue churn (annual %) Annual revenue lost to downgrades and cancellations before expansion; falls steadily as the account base matures and moves up-market (the mirror of gross revenue retention). | 15% | 12% | 9% | 7% |
| Logo churn (annual %) Customer-count churn runs far above revenue churn at the SMB-heavy early stage and roughly halves by the time enterprise mix dominates above $20M. | 22% | 16% | 12% | 9% |
| Net revenue retention (%) Early-stage medians sit just below break-even on existing revenue; NRR crosses 100 percent by the low single-digit millions and reaches the low 110s as expansion compounds at the top end. | 97% | 102% | 105% | 112% |
| Gross revenue retention (%) The complement of gross revenue churn; rises with scale and larger contract values, with scale-stage medians in the low 90s and top performers approaching the high 90s. | 85% | 88% | 91% | 93% |
| CAC payback (months) Payback lengthens with scale as deals move up-market into enterprise; early SMB motions recover spend fastest while $20M-plus medians sit near 20 months. | 12 months | 15 months | 18 months | 20 months |
| LTV:CAC ratio Lifetime-value to acquisition-cost runs 3x-to-4x across these stages, inside the healthy 3x-to-5x band, and edges higher with scale as retention improves; below 3.0 signals an efficiency problem. | 3.0 | 3.3 | 3.5 | 4.0 |
| Rule of 40 (% passing) Share of companies whose growth plus profit margin clears 40; pass rates peak in the $5-20M growth band and dip slightly above $20M as growth falls faster than margins improve. | 20% | 25% | 33% | 30% |
| Gross margin (%) Early-stage margins are compressed several points below scale peers, partly from AI and inference COGS, and recover toward the 80 percent SaaS benchmark as infrastructure spend is amortized at scale. | 73% | 76% | 78% | 80% |
| SaaS magic number New ARR generated per dollar of sales and marketing; sales efficiency builds through the growth stages to peak near 0.9, then eases above $20M as the addressable base saturates. Above 0.75 is considered efficient. | 0.7 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 0.75 |
| Burn multiple Net cash burned per dollar of net new ARR; improves consistently with scale, with $20M-plus companies targeting at or below 1.0 and the best performers turning it negative. Lower is better. | 1.8 | 1.5 | 1.2 | 1.0 |
The stage columns matter more than any single number. A 12 percent gross revenue churn rate is roughly median at $1-5M but high once you pass $20M. Always compare yourself to your own band, not the company you want to be in three years.
Most healthy metrics move with scale: growth slows, churn falls, retention rises, the magic number builds, burn multiple drops toward 1.0. CAC payback is the deliberate exception: it lengthens as deals move up-market. A number trending the right way matters more than one that is briefly on benchmark.
Hitting the median means you are typical, not exceptional. Top-quartile companies clear these figures comfortably — net revenue retention in the high 110s, burn multiple below 1.0, growth well above the median at every stage. Treat the table as a floor to clear, not a finish line.
Gross revenue churn and gross revenue retention are two sides of one coin: at the $5-20M stage, 91 percent GRR means 9 percent gross revenue churn, because the two always sum to 100. Logo churn always sits above revenue churn because small accounts leave by count faster than by dollars. If your figures break those relationships, check the definitions before you act on them.
Do not try to move every number at once. Pick the one metric that gates your stage and fix the input behind it.
Fix churn before chasing new logos, because leaking revenue caps every other metric. Diagnose where it is happening, then close the gaps that move net revenue retention back above 100 percent.
Decide whether growth or margin is the cheaper point to add, then commit. Most companies under $30M find one lever far easier to pull than the other, and the calculator shows which.
A low magic number or long CAC payback usually means sales productivity, not deal size. Pin down which spend is not converting before you cut or scale the motion.
Growth, retention and the Rule of 40 are exactly the inputs buyers and investors price on. See what your current numbers imply for a multiple.
These are reconciled median values per ARR stage, settled by cross-referencing six 2025 industry benchmark reports and checking them for internal consistency. Gross revenue churn equals 100 minus gross revenue retention at every stage. Logo churn always exceeds revenue churn because early-stage SMB accounts leave by count faster than by dollars. Net revenue retention rises and both churn measures fall as ARR grows. Rule of 40 is reported as the percentage of companies passing, not a median score: a company growing 25 percent with a 20 percent profit margin scores 45 and clears the bar. AI-native outliers that can post 90 to 110 percent growth at sub-$20M ARR are deliberately excluded so the medians describe the typical company.
The blended anchors match the underlying reports: median private SaaS growth around 24 to 26 percent, median NRR around 106 percent, median GRR around 88 percent, a median magic number that peaks near 0.9 in the growth bands, CAC payback around 18 to 20 months, and only roughly 20 to 33 percent of sub-$30M companies clearing the Rule of 40.
These figures are defensible medians for orientation and citation, not guarantees. Your stage mix, segment, pricing model and geography all move the right number for your business. Use them to set direction, then measure your own data against them.
These are reconciled median values per ARR stage — the typical private B2B SaaS company, not the top decile. We deliberately exclude AI-native outliers that can post 90 to 110 percent growth at sub-$20M ARR, because they distort what "normal" looks like. Top-quartile figures run materially better: where the median sub-$1M company grows about 75 percent, top-quartile seeds clear 200 percent. Use the medians to orient, then aim to beat them.
Early-stage SaaS skews toward SMB customers, who churn faster by count than enterprise accounts do, which is why logo churn runs well above revenue churn under $1M. As companies move up-market, contracts get larger and stickier, so gross revenue churn falls from about 15 percent to 7 percent and net revenue retention climbs past 100 percent. CAC payback is the exception: it lengthens with scale, from roughly 12 months to 20, because enterprise deals cost more to win even though they retain better.
Only a minority of private companies under $30M ARR clear the Rule of 40 in any given year — roughly 20 to 33 percent in our dataset. Pass rates peak in the $5-20M band, where growth is still strong and margins are starting to firm up, then dip slightly above $20M as growth decelerates faster than profitability improves. If you pass, you are already ahead of most peers. Check yours with the Rule of 40 calculator.
We cross-referenced six 2025 benchmark reports (SaaS Capital, KeyBanc and Sapphire, ChartMogul, Bessemer, Maxio (ProfitWell) and Benchmarkit) and settled on internally consistent medians per stage, with each metric checked against the others so the table holds together. The blended anchors line up with the underlying reports: median private SaaS growth around 24 to 26 percent, NRR around 106 percent, GRR around 88 percent, and a magic number that peaks near 0.9 in the growth bands.
Pick the one metric that gates your stage and fix the input behind it. Below on retention, attack churn before chasing new logos: start with the churn rate calculator and our guide to reducing SaaS churn. Below on the Rule of 40, decide whether growth or margin is the cheaper point to add. Below on efficiency, the magic number and CAC payback will tell you whether the problem is sales productivity or deal size. Mowt computes all of these from your Stripe data automatically.
Mowt computes every metric in this table (growth, churn, NRR, CAC payback, Rule of 40, magic number and burn multiple) straight from your billing data, updated in real time. Stop estimating and see exactly where you stand.
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